Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States on Monday of plunging the Middle East into chaos and fueling the rise of extremists because of its drive to dominate the world.Sergei Lavrov also accused the United States of encouraging Ukraine to challenge Moscow and heavily weighing in on the European Union (EU).Lavrov said that “our American colleagues still prefer to push the Ukrainian leadership toward a confrontational path.”He added that chances for settling the Ukrainian crisis would have been higher if it only depended on Russia and Europe.Lavrov spoke after Fridays European Union summit, which decided not to immediately impose new sanctions on Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine, but gave the Russian government and pro-Russian insurgents there until Monday to take steps to improve the situation.Ukraine on Friday signed a free-trade pact with the EU, the very deal that angered Russia and triggered the bloodshed and political convulsions of the past seven months that brought Russia-West relations to their lowest point since the Cold war era.In November, under pressure from Moscow, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych dumped the EU pact, fuelling huge protests that eventually drove him from power. Following Yanukovych’s ouster, mainly Russian-speaking Crimean peninsula joined Russia in March and pro-Russian separatists soon rose up in Ukraines eastern provinces.The U.S. and the EU slapped travel bans and asset freezes on members of Russian President Vladimir Putins inner circle and threatened to impose more crippling sanctions against entire sectors of Russias economy if the Kremlin fails to de-escalate the crisis.The EU leaders on Friday gave Russia and the separatists until Monday to take steps to ease the violence, including releasing all captives, retreating from border checkpoints, agreeing on a way to verify the cease-fire and launching “substantial negotiations” on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkos peace plan.The week-long ceasefire, which both sides have been accused of violating, expired at 10 pm local time (1900 GMT), but Poroshenko quickly declared its extension until 10 pm local time on Monday.Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Koval was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying on Saturday that the situation in the east was largely quiet overnight and there were no casualties among Ukrainian troops despite sporadic shooting.Lavrov acknowledged that Russia has some leverage with the separatists, pointing at their move this week to release four observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) after weeks of captivity, but claimed that Moscows influence is limited.“There are reasons to believe that they hear us on other aspects of Russian position regarding the crisis in Ukraine, but that doesnt mean that they immediately move to heed our calls,” he said.Four other OSCE observers are still being held, but a leader of the insurgents promised on Friday to free them “in the nearest days”.Following talks with a troika including a former Ukrainian president who represented the Kiev government, the Russian ambassador and an OSCE envoy, rebel leader Alexander Borodai also promised to abide by the extended ceasefire.He rejected the EU leaders demand to retreat from three checkpoints on the border with Russia captured by the separatists, but invited OSCE to send its monitors to the border crossings and any other areas in the east.Elsewhere, Lavrov leveled the fierce criticism of Washingtons policies at a special UN Security Council debate on maintaining international peace and security.The foreign minister cited the U.S.-led air strikes in Syria, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya as examples of “violations of the fundamental principles of the United Nations.”“All of this is the result of attempts to dominate global affairs, to rule over all, everywhere, to use military force unilaterally to push ones interests,” Lavrov told the 15-member council.“These have plunged the Middle East and North Africa into instability and chaos, and to a large extent have created a breeding ground in which extremists thrive,” he said.Russia and the United States have been at loggerheads over the war in Syria, with Moscow supporting President Bashar al-Assad and opposing U.S. air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group targets.Lavrov did not mention the United States by name, but his remarks made clear he was targeting the U.S. administration.The foreign minister spoke of “unsavory methods” being used such as “regime change” and “open support for the unconstitutional state coup in Ukraine a year ago.”Russia has repeatedly accused the United States and its western allies of having engineered the ouster of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych, which triggered the separatist upheaval in Crimea and east Ukraine.Lavrov said the United Nations Security Council was either used as a body to “rubber stamp” decisions made in Washington or was sidelined altogether from its primary role of maintaining peace and security.“Do we really want to see the Security Council as an effective instrument for peace and security or are we ready to turn it into an area for propagandistic confrontation,” he asked.The foreign minister spoke to the council as Ukraine accused pro-Russia rebels of massing forces near the port city of Mariupol despite a ceasefire agreement reached between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.
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